Hang onto your seats. The smartphone wars are about to intensify, and this time Apple [AAPL] won't attack Samsung in the courts, but in the marketplace as it raises the stakes on innovation all over again.

Phandroids should perhaps have been careful what they wished for when they said Apple was done on innovation -- Cupertino's working, plotting, planning to prove you wrong.

The stage seems set for action. Samsung gave it a good shot with the Galaxy S4, but sales of the phone are already slumping it discovers that as these devices become ever more commoditized, strong sales happen only across the first quarter after launch -- if you're lucky.

That's not to say Apple will introduce a new iOS device at the show, but it is certainly on the way -- the company hopes to attract mid-range consumers, at the expense of its competitors.

Who will be most affected by this? Who do you think?

Widening the franchise

It makes sense to widen the iPhone market.

In a wider context we are barely at the halfway point of what seems set to be a decade of recession (if we skip the 'feel good' statistics from our crazy-eyed, disconnected politicians and look at what's really happening among our neighborhoods, communities and friends). Logically this means we are looking at an increasingly price conscious market.

White believes the launch of an iPhone mini is "imminent" and that the device will be available in five colors and cost around $350-$400. The current edition iPhone costs around $600.

This product will make an iPhone model available to a much wider congregation of users. The device will hopefully appeal to those who feel the current model is too expensive for them, yet will deliver a high quality user experience similar to the premium model. It will directly appeal to people who currently pick up a mid-range Samsung device.

Mobile device makers aren't just competing in the premium and mid-tier segments, of course. They also offer solutions for the entry level market. Most of these are nothing more than a jazzed-up feature phone, and their various features aren't fully exploited by most users.

iWatch could be nothing more than a companion device for iPhone users -- but what if it's something more? What if it turns out to be a wrist-worn device with some apps and all the call and SMS features of a lower-end smartphone? The offering could be rounded out with iTunes/iRadio support and a small quantity of on-board memory. This would be a good product, offering more than lower end devices in an interesting form factor and at a competitive price.